NEW YORK – David Phelps was officially the winning pitcher, though final credit for Wednesday night’s abbreviated 2-1 Yankees victory against Texas was awarded to Mother Nature.

A fast-arriving, torrential rainstorm during the home fifth inning delayed the Yankee Stadium grounds crew from covering the field in a timely manner. During that 13-minute span, the infield took on an immense amount of water.

After another delay to consult with MLB officials from New York, the field was deemed unplayable, giving the Yankees their fifth win in six games to start the season’s second half.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi and Texas skipper Ron Washington were in agreement that play could not resume under the prevailing field conditions — despite the grounds crew’s best efforts.

“Both managers were very concerned about the softness of the base paths,” said Dale Scott, plate umpire and crew chief. “Once we walked [the field] a little bit, it was very soft. Both managers had a concern about … injuries, hamstrings, that kind of stuff.”

Brett Gardner’s third-inning, solo homer off Texas starter Yu Darvish (9-6) broke a 1-1 tie, and the game became official after Phelps (5-4) retired the Rangers in the visiting fifth.

Catcher Francisco Cervelli doubled in the third inning, moved to third on a groundout and scored the tying run on a balk. One batter later, Gardner clubbed his career-high 10th homer of the year.

“He’s one of the best,” Gardner said of Darvish. “He’s got so many pitches, he’s able to locate and he strikes out a lot of guys. I was fortunate to get ahead of the count and got a good pitch to hit.”

Phelps yielded a third-inning run on a double-play grounder by Rougned Odor. In the fifth, Phelps stranded Leonys Martin after a one-out triple – getting Chris Gimenez on a popout and striking out Odor.

Then, “Mother Nature was on our side tonight,” Phelps said.

Following his second double of the game, Cervelli was at second base with one out in the Yankees’ fifth when a sudden rain quickly became a torrent and halted play at 8:46 p.m.

But the grounds crew couldn’t get the tarp to completely cover the infield for another 13 minutes, due to the storm’s fast and furious nature. The deluge caused the tarp to anchor in left field, and the crew’s efforts became on-field entertainment for the rain-drenched crowd.

On the final, successful run, one grounds crew member was briefly trapped under the heavy tarp, causing a momentary pause before he was freed.

Fifteen minutes later, the tarp was removed and the grounds crew went to work on the water-ravaged field.

Prior to the anticipated resumption of play at 10:05, there was a lengthy discussion near first base between the managers, umpires and head groundskeeper Dan Cunningham.

“I said, ‘I question if the conditions would be safe for our players,’Ÿ” Girardi said, adding that Washington agreed.

Darvish was warming up on the main mound and his Rangers teammates were ready to take the field. But they never got the chance.

“The field was just not playable,” Scott said. “They did a heck of a job trying to get it back and I praise them for that, but it just wasn’t going to happen.”

And then it began to rain again, lightly at first and then steadily. At 10:26 p.m., the grounds crew pulled the tarp back on the field.